I taught myself to live simply and wisely,
to look at the sky and pray to God,
and to wander long before evening to tire my superfluous worries.
Anna Akhmatova, 1889 – 1966 I Taught Myself to Live Simply
Living simply
Tag: heart
Holding both
Though the years are sad,
the days have a way of being jubilant
Edith Wharton’s autobiography, A Backward Glance
A vale of soul-making
Our path will always be strewn with broken branches and stones, yet even the obstacles in our path are part of the path. They make it real. We are not angels and the hard edges of the physical world offer a resistance that, if they do not break us first, can temper the soul and open it to another world, which is nowhere if not here .
This life is a “vale of Soul-making” Keats says. When we see it that way, being lost is not only part of the journey; it is the royal way of becoming real, meaning that our outer knowing can be an accurate reflection of our inner knowing.
Roger Housden, Ten poems for Difficult Times
A clean bright heart
Phenomenon are preceded by the heart, ruled by the heart, made of the heart.
If you speak or act with a calm, bright heart, then happiness follows you, like a shadow that never leaves
Dhammapada Twin Verses, 2
Your great teacher
What would happen if you put striving aside?
What if your practice was simply being present ?
Just open awareness. Just here. No longer anything to find. Just being present.
And then within that….letting your own heart teach you. Letting your own heart guide you.
What if you trusted that your own heart is really your great teacher?
Henry Shukman, Zen teacher, Mountain Cloud Zen Center
Sunday Quote: Be silent
Be silent
only the hand of God can remove the burdens of the heart
Rumi
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